Hello and welcome to the November newsletter!
As this newsletter goes out, Toastmasters all over the country will be heading up to Glasgow for the Flourish Autumn conference, which starts this evening and continues through the weekend. There will be educational workshops, the UK & Ireland finals of the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests (good luck to Ola Aralepo and David Jones respectively), and copious amounts of socialising!
For those of you who are fairly new to Toastmasters, there are two conferences each year – the Autumn conference in November and the Spring conference in May – and they’re a great way to meet members from other clubs and see some of the best speakers and trainers in Toastmasters.
We’ve got a full newsletter this month and I’m delighted to hand over a section of it to our VP of Membership & Mentoring Hari Kalymnios.
But first, what’s new at Bloomsbury Speakers?
Recent news
We had a couple of great meetings in October and it was particularly exciting to see a number of our newer members completing early speeches from the Competent Communicator manual, including a fantastic Icebreaker from Jo!
Also, I’m very pleased to welcome aboard our latest member Richard and I look forward to booking him in for an Icebreaker soon.
So, what’s happening this month?
Regular Meeting – Monday 14th November
This coming Monday is our next meeting and we’ve already got a pretty full agenda – but there’s still room for an evaluator and we could possibly squeeze in an icebreaker. Book yourself into ClubPlan or speak to Femi our VPE.
Even if you’re not on the agenda, remember that Table Topics is a great way to get a chance to speak. Kate Osborne will be our Topicsmaster so make sure you grab her before the start of the meeting to get your name on that list.
Regular Meeting – Monday 28th November
This is the last regular meeting before our special Christmas-themed one on the 12th December and so one of the last opportunities to get some speaking action before 2012.
There’s still a speaking slot free and some functionary roles including Timekeeper and Evaluator – so get yourself booked in.
Coming Soon
Christmas Meeting – Monday 12th December
We’ve mentioned this one before but do make sure you’ve got it in your diary as it promises to be great fun and a great way to celebrate the holiday season with your friends at Toastmasters.
More details will be revealed in the next newsletter but it’s our last meeting of the year so expect much seasonal silliness…
Mentoring at Bloomsbury Speakers
(courtesy of Hari Kalymnios, VP Membership & Mentoring)
No great leaders or speakers have become great alone. Often it’s the people in the background who offer council; words of encouragement and critique that help elevate these greats and provide them with the
steerage needed to succeed.
At Bloomsbury Speakers we put a strong emphasis on mentoring and ensure that each new club member has a mentor for those all important early speeches and beyond.
The mentor is there to guide, support and offer advice and encouragement to their mentee to help them meet their desired goals.
As part of our commitment to mentoring I recently gave an educational speech on this very topic at our last meetings. If you weren’t present or would like to know more about mentoring (either having a mentor – or being one), please email mentoring@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk
for more information.
Mentoring is an important part of a Toastmaster’s journey and having access to a mentor to bounce ideas off, ask questions and offer you feedback will elevate your experience at Toastmasters to the next level.
It’s also immensely rewarding to be a mentor as you’ll be grow as a leader and friend throughout the process, so I thoroughly recommend it.
To finish off, here’s a link to a video from American motivational speaker Les Brown about reaching your full potential:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23PgYSpISNE
Taking full advantage of mentoring is one way of making sure you reach yours.
Tip of the Month
Does this pattern seem familiar to you?
- You put lots of time and energy into writing a speech.
- You work hard to learn and practice your speech.
- You deliver your speech in a meeting and get lots of juicy feedback.
- And then… you forget all about it and start thinking about the next speech.
If want to get the maximum benefit from all that effort, you owe it to yourself to deliver that speech again.
Review the feedback, make a few changes, do a bit more practice, and then arrange to speak at another club.
Although you generally can’t book a speaking slot at another club unless you’re a member, clubs will often have last minute cancellations or just a gap on the agenda. Make contact with the VPE of a few local clubs and let them know you’re willing to step in at short notice.
It’s a great way to reap the full reward of all that effort you put in at the start.
Okay folks, that’s all for this month. Hope to see many of you at Monday’s meeting and certainly before Christmas.
Best wishes,
Glen Long
President
